Ocracoke Island evacuation terminated for residents, property owners, and vendors immediately – WNCT

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HYDE COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) The Ocracoke Control Group met Tuesday morning, August 4 to receive an update on conditions affecting the island.

The NCDOT Ferry Division has conducted test runs of the ferry channels and reported that the ferries are able to navigate safely to the island.

The USCG has authorized them to resume service.

NCDOT reports that Hwy 12 did not suffer any significant damage and is passable.

Based on the recommendation from the Ocracoke Control Group, The Hyde County Board of Commissioners have terminated the evacuation order for Ocracoke residents, property owners, and vendors effective immediately.

After the evacuation order is lifted; residents, property owners, and vendors will immediately be allowed to access Ocracoke Island pending NCDOT Ferry availability.

The evacuation order for Ocracoke Island visitors will be terminated effective Wednesday, August 5 at 6:00 a.m.

Hyde County officials said to be aware that the Hatteras to Ocracoke ferry schedule will be limited until additional vessels have returned from mooring.

You may experience delays accordingly. In addition, the sound route test runs have not been completed at this time, and ferries from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island will not begin until this is done and they receive approval to begin service again.

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Ocracoke Island evacuation terminated for residents, property owners, and vendors immediately - WNCT

A remote Scottish island is looking for residents to live off-grid – Yahoo Lifestyle

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The western coastline of the Isle of Rum (Getty).

Post-lockdown, British people are falling into two camps: those who are craving social interaction and those who have embraced alone time and feel anxious about the prospect of normality returning.

If you fall into the latter category, you might be interested to know about an opportunity to make that remote lifestyle your new normal.

The Isle of Rum, a remote Scottish outpost neighbouring the Isle of Skye, is actively seeking people who are looking for a slice of the quieter life.

Read more: The UKs top beach, city and country destinations

Currently home to 40 residents, the island wants to add to their community by seeking out like-minded people to join them.

With only six children currently living on the island, it needs to attract more families to fill up schools and provide a future for the island.

The rocky island is just eight miles end to end and is located in Scotlands Inner Hebrides.

The Isle of Rum Community Trust says it wants new residents to move into four new eco-homes, which are currently under construction.

The two-bedroom properties will be located on the outskirts of Kinloch village and anyone who fancies a change of pace is being encouraged to register their interest on the islands website. Anyone with a special set of skills or trades who could help diversify the island and its economy will seemingly get extra points.

Read more: Bacon butties named Britains favourite sandwich

The Isle of Rum has had a difficult job trying to encourage people to re-locate to the far-flung location, but the community is hoping that the extra houses and new job opportunities might make the prospect more appealing.

Job opportunities in childcare, food production, house maintenance, fish farming or marine and mountain tourism are already available, according to the website. The island is also set up for people with young families.

If youre into animal watching, youll appreciate this location even more.

Up until 1957, The Isle of Rum was called The Forbidden Island but it was then sold to a wildlife conservation team, which allowed wild animals to thrive under its care.

Story continues

It boasts deer, wild goats, ponies, golden and white-tailed eagles, as well as a colony of Manx shearwaters on its eight-mile stretch.

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A remote Scottish island is looking for residents to live off-grid - Yahoo Lifestyle

Marco Island Police Dept. cleared of wrongdoing in arrest of protester – Wink News

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The Marco Island Police Department has been cleared of wrongdoing in the arrest of a woman at a Black Lives Matter rally.

The protest and rally took place on June 3 and resulted in the arrest of Taliya Denham, a 22-year-old Chicago woman, after she allegedly confronted a man and knocked his phone from his hand.

Denhams father, Howard Denham, filed a complaint against the police department soon after, alleging they knew there would be agitators at the rally, including a man armed with an AR-15, and did nothing to protect the protesters from a man who was intending to be armed with an AR-15.

The complaint also alleged that the man Taliya Denham confronted was a known agitator and MIPD allowed him to be present at the rally, thereby leading to Taliya Denhams confrontation with the man and to her arrest. The complaint sought to have Taliya Denhams charge of robbery by sudden snatching reduced from a felony.

Marco Island City Manager Mike McNees commissioned an outside investigation using an independent investigator, Franklin Investigations, Inc., to conduct a thorough review of the events.

MIPD on Monday released the results of the investigation and said Howard Denham made a sworn statement indicating he no longer took issue with his daughters arrest, and he made no claim of injury suffered by his daughter in the course of her arrest.

The conclusion from the investigative report notes, There is clearly no evidence of any excessive use of force in the arrest of Ms. Denham. The report further concluded that The charge of robbery is a felony as dictated by Florida statute. As to the legitimacy of the charge, the State Attorneys Office has formally filed the robbery charge and the case is pending. As to the question of Ms. Denhams intent or whether or not charging her with robbery was somehow discriminatory, these are likely questions for a judge or jury.

On June 3, 2020 when approximately fifty protesters marched to City Hall, the Marco Island Police Department was prepared, respectful, and professional to everyone involved. We are proud of the way our police officers, with assistance from Collier County Sheriffs Office, conducted themselves throughout the course of events. This investigation and its final report confirm that Chief Frazzano and her staff took all appropriate measures to keep the public and the protestors safe during this event, McNees said.

DOWNLOAD: Marco Island Police F. I. 20-21 (complaint investigation)

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Marco Island Police Dept. cleared of wrongdoing in arrest of protester - Wink News

The Gun: Vincent Palmieri disappeared from Staten Island in 1972; his death has a mysterious link to Western – MassLive.com

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They wrestled for years with unanswered questions, their minds crowded with theories of what had become of their father, who abruptly disappeared from his home on Staten Island, New York, in 1972.

As a boy, one of Vincent Palmieris sons searched for him in trash bins and in shadows. Another thought he may have been abducted by aliens. A third believed he may have been chopped up into little pieces.

They only knew two things for sure. Their fathers car was found abandoned at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York. And, he was gone.

Meanwhile, 350 miles away in the cold-running waters of the Passumpsic River in East Barnet, Vermont, about 60 miles south of the Canadian border, the body of a partially-dressed man with distinctive tattoos was discovered that spring by a sewage repair worker. It was Palmieri, but it was a long while until anyone knew 45 years, to be exact.

This summer, Palmieris family filed an $800,000 lawsuit against the state of Vermont and the Vermont State Police over the mysterious disappearance of their father a murder that remains unsolved. Although the complaint filed in late June is just six pages long, it attempts to mitigate decades of heartache for the family, who only learned three years ago their father had been shot dead and dumped in that river when he was 35 years old.

The lawsuit alleges shoddy investigative work by Vermont police detectives and an air of complacency when they first identified Palmieris body in 2006.

A Vermont State Police sergeant took certain actions to determine the identity of any family members of the victim between July 2006 and July 2007, and again in December 2009 but such actions only constituted a cursory investigation, wrote Brice C. Simon, a Vermont attorney representing the Palmieris.

Palmieris remains spent 45 years in a lonely grave with an anonymous marker in Lakeview Cemetery in Burlington, Vermont, until the Vermont State Police located and contacted Palmieris children in 2017. They brought their fathers remains home to be buried on Staten Island, next to their mother.

My father had a very strong presence that I hadnt felt in 46 years. When I walked into the cemetery to bring him home I felt it again, said Vincent Palmieri Jr.

Gerald Palmieri, left, and his older brother Vincent Palmieri Jr. kneel at the gravesite for their late parents in St. Peters Cemetery in the Brightwood section of Staten Island. Their mother, Annette, died of natural causes in 2015. Stephanie Barry / The Republican

Confounding links to Western Massachusetts

The gun that killed Palmieri a Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver has also been linked to two slayings in Greater Springfield within weeks of his death. The bodies of organized crime figure Victor DeCaro and a low-level criminal, Gary J. Dube, also turned up in watery graves, riddled with bullets.

Only Dubes murder was solved. Francis Soffen, a notorious outlaw and bank robber who died in prison in 2015, pleaded guilty in 1973 to killing Dube and another man, Stephen J. Perrot.

Available police and court records offer little evidence of any meaningful investigation into DeCaros killing.

But for a short missing person report filed with the Agawam Police Department, the Hampden district attorneys office does not appear to have a single investigative file linked to his death. The agency was, at the time, led by the late Matthew J. Matty Ryan, who reportedly had an affinity for gangsters and was known to clamp down on certain investigations.

DeCaros unsolved slaying is not even listed in the cold case database on the Hampden County district attorneys website, which features cases dating back to the late 1950s. Current Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni ignored requests for comment.

For years, the critical link among the three deaths was neither publicized nor probed by law enforcement, until the Palmieri family began its own investigation. They ask why their father met the same end with the same gun as Agawam resident Dube, a witness against Soffen, and DeCaro, reportedly a philandering wiseguy from Longmeadow. DeCaro allegedly took an interest in the wrong gangsters wife and disappeared from the parking lot of his restaurant near the Agawam rotary.

Soffen was well known to be a renegade and a hired gun during his criminal heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, leading a group of outlaws known as the Soffen gang. He moved easily among crime circles.

At left, an artists portrait of Gary J. Dube. At right, a photograph of Victor C. DeCaro from the archives of The Republican.

But, Palmieris family says he had no connection with Soffen and no ties to Greater Springfield or anyone in New England, to their knowledge. There isnt a confirmed theory about any of the most pertinent questions about his death: the why, the where, the who or the how. Even the when at least, not precisely.

The union typesetter and Manhattan native vanished around May 1, 1972, leaving behind nine bewildered children and a heartbroken wife in a tight-knit, working-class New York City borough where single mothers were few.

All those years, the family never knew their fathers badly decomposed body had washed ashore one month after he disappeared.

His wife, Annette, filed a missing person report on May 5, 1972. Her sons, during a series of interviews with The Republican over two years, said New York City police treated her shabbily.

They laughed at her. They mocked her, telling her my dad was a gangster or that he ran off and left us, Vincent Palmieri Jr. said. Daddy was not a gangster. He was a street guy. He knew some knock-around guys from the neighborhood. But he had a legitimate job and we didnt have a lot of money. We lived in a project.

While the bodies of all three men were dumped in waterways between Connecticut and Vermont, Palmieris was the farthest from home, suggesting his killer or killers wanted him to stay gone.

A July 11, 1972, article in The Springfield Union, predecessor to The Republican, said police believed the man found in the Vermont river was from Greater Springfield but it didnt say why. The article toyed with the similarities between the three killings but the message apparently never made it to New York City.

At left, Staten Island resident Vincent Palmieri, a murder victim who mysteriously disappeared from his neighborhood in 1972, is shown in an undated photo next to a car found abandoned at John F. Kennedy International Airport that year. At right, a parking claim ticket found when his car was discovered. Courtesy of the Palmieri family

A mystery man

The man in the river was shirtless, his body bloated, three bullet wounds to his back and one to the side of his skull. He had some dollar bills and loose change in his pockets and distinctive tattoos on his arms. He still wore a gold pinky ring and a woven belt. He didnt look like a local.

A medical examiner in Vermont estimated the body had been in the water for up to a month.

Annette was tattooed on the mans upper right forearm, and surrounding a heart on his lower arm was Vin LOVE A. U. a tribute to his brides maiden name, Annette Uricola.

In the absence of a national fingerprint database, DNA technology or the internet, Vermont police had nothing but straight gumshoe work to do for months. With no crime scene to work from, the case went cold inside of a year.

Decades later, a simple internet search almost surely would have connected Palmieris family to the mystery man or the Passumpsic river floater in Vermont, as police labeled him at the time. Investigators do not know where he had been abducted or killed only where he had been dumped.

A lengthy story in an obscure crime magazine about crime sprees in Greater Springfield in the early 1970s even featured a drawing of his body ink and the pattern of his belt.

Police had hoped that published drawings of tattoos found on the arms of a water-borne corpse might lead to identification of man also thought to be connected to gangland. Also sketched was the design of the belt worn by the victim, reads a caption from a story titled Thieves Fall Out published April 8, 1973.

With a dearth of sophisticated forensics methods or search engines, though, the details never made it as far as New York. Palmieris remains languished in that unmarked grave in Vermont for more than four decades.

Vincent Palmieri, far left, with his wife and several of their children in an undated photograph.Photo courtesy of the Palmieri family

A family haunted

As the years wore on, the Palmieri children rarely spoke of their father. Friends stopped asking why they didnt have a dad. They finished school, fell in love, married, had their own children, built careers and made their own homes on Staten Island.

Palmieri was identified by Vermont State Police in 2006 using the national FBI fingerprint database, according to now-retired Capt. J.P. Sinclair, who headed the states cold case unit. He helped the Palmieri children bring their fathers remains home a decade later.

Sinclair said they were unable to find next of kin until a young researcher decided to try Ancestry.com and got a hit.

This delay represents the crux of the recent lawsuit: Did the police try hard enough to find his family? Could his family have begun to come to terms with their fathers death sooner? Simon, the familys attorney, argues troopers didnt try hard enough.

The gravamen of the lawsuit is the state of Vermont breached its duty by failing to undertake reasonable efforts to determine the family members of Vincent Palmieri, Simon said. They had his identity and they investigated the identity. There are notes in the police report indicating that there was going to be some follow-up and then they dropped the ball for 10 years.

Simon said the money the lawsuit seeks, $100,000 per child, isnt merely an attempt at a cash grab.

I dont think its about the money for the Palmieris, he said. I think they just want to achieve some sort of recognition that this wasnt handled properly and they suffered as a result.

Palmieri is now buried next to his wife in the heart of Staten Island. An ornate, shared headstone joins them in death. Family members visit often. Their youngest son says he occasionally finds himself there in the middle of the night.

Annette Palmieri died in 2015, never knowing her husband had not simply walked out on her and the children.

My mom asked if I knew anything about my father on her deathbed, like I was keeping something from her. On her deathbed, she still talked about him, Vincent Palmieri Jr. said during an extensive series of interviews.

Finding out what happened all those years ago is like a double-edged sword, a blessing and a curse all those sayings, he said. We had almost gotten used to the fact that he was gone. Now, were all tortured all over again with questions. We want to know what happened to him.

It was like their father, their Pops, never even existed, said the now 63-year-old namesake. Staten Island police showed little interest. There were no updates, no arrests, no deathbed confessions. The family still harbors a mountain of resentment against law enforcement agencies they believe never even bothered to try to uncover who was responsible for their fathers death, and why.

Vincent Palmieri Jr. is a gregarious type who worked in finance, saw two planes hit the World Trade Center from the Staten Island Ferry on Sept. 11, 2001, is a father to one son, lost his wife to an illness, and duked the gravediggers in Vermont so they would handle his father with care.

His youngest brother, Gerald, is in private security and has been intensely sleuthing since learning of their fathers fate. Gerald Palmieri often carries with him the catchers mitt his father gave him as a child. Both Vincent Jr. and Gerry have remained on Staten Island with their siblings: Patrick, Salvatore, Angela, Stephen, Nancy and Elizabeth. Another sister, Antonette, died of spinal meningitis in 2008.

Daddy was not a gangster. He was a street guy. He knew some knock-around guys from the neighborhood. But he had a legitimate job and we didnt have a lot of money.

Vincent Palmieri Jr.

They say their dad was a steady guy with a nontraditional schedule. He worked nights in the city, a member of a small labor union. He came home every morning after his shift on the lower East Side, bringing Chinese food or bagels and lox. He had the good looks of a big-screen star, a dimpled grin and a thick head of dark hair.

In the sprawling projects of the West Brighton Housing Complex, Palmieri would offer impromptu swim lessons to neighborhood kids and headed off racial tensions, according to his sons. He often tossed a football around with his boys or read stories aloud from books that sat on a tall, narrow bookshelf in their living room.

Palmieri had no criminal record, but for a single arrest in his youth. Vermont police could never track down the arrest report. The Palmieri family cannot even locate the missing person report their mother filed with New York City police.

Patrick Palmieri, the eldest of the Palmieri sons, said he took his younger brothers to a ballgame on the last day he remembers seeing his father.

I remember seeing my dad at the corner store. He would spend time at the store, as a lot of people in the neighborhood would. My family was not a democracy. I would not, for instance, say: Who was that person you were talking to and what business do you have with him? It didnt work that way in our house, said Patrick Palmieri, a mental health counselor at a New York state hospital.

He vaguely remembers his father talking to him about moving the family to the country. He thinks his father may have mentioned Massachusetts or even Vermont, but is uncertain whether his memory is playing tricks on him whether he is retrofitting a recollection to unlock some mystery about his fathers disappearance.

A March 23, 2018 photograph shows the stretch of the Passumpsic River in East Barnet, Vt. where Vincent Palmieris body was found on June 1, 1972. Stephanie Barry / The Republican

Not a mob hit

Vincent Palmieri Sr. grew up in Little Italy, in lower Manhattan. The neighborhood was not the trendy tourist draw it is today, his son Patrick said. The social milieu of the enclave during the 1940s and 50s was that of an Italian ghetto for new immigrants, he said.

He and other family members suspect their fathers disappearance was dismissed as the fate of a womanizer, a rakish Italian guy from the neighborhood that was once the heart of the New York-based Genovese crime family still one of the powerful five clans that exist today.

For generations, the crime family has also had a grip on Springfield and parts of Connecticut.

While Vincent Palmieris slaying had all the hallmarks of a classic mob hit an ambush-style shooting, the river dump many miles from home the family insists he had nothing to do with organized crime. Vincent Palmieri Sr. was not a made guy, they say, and he was largely a homebody.

If this was a mob hit, they would have whacked him in the middle of the street and left him there as a message. Thats how the mob does that. This wasnt that, Vincent Jr. insists.

The family concedes it wouldnt have been the wildest idea that he kept up with some of his childhood friends from the old neighborhood, where avoiding at least brushing up against budding gangsters was virtually impossible. Plus, there is the obvious challenge of raising nine children on a single salary in New York City.

Retired Vermont State Police Capt. JP Sinclair in his office at the departments headquarters in Waterbury, where he harnessed much of the cold case information linked to Vincent Palmieris unsolved slaying. Stephanie Barry / The Republican

A new twist

Last year, a 48-year-old woman from New Jersey approached the Palmieris to inform them they shared the same father. She said she made the discovery through one of the DNA tests that are growing popular on the internet.

The womans mother initially denied any connection to the late Vincent Palmieri Sr. in interviews with police, according to the Palmieris. But Vincent Palmieri Jr. said she later admitted to her daughter that she knew his father.

The womans mother had been married to a man with a long criminal history who raised Palmieris child as his own, according to Palmieri Jr. However, the mother recently passed away, after her stepfather died years ago. Another door slammed shut.

The alleged half-sister of the Palmieris did not respond to requests for an interview.

The passage of time makes a lot of things difficult to know.

But for Sinclair, other law enforcement officials have had little to offer. A records repository where any documentation may have been held in New York City was washed away by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, family members were told. They have little evidence and few records to hang onto. Still, they search.

Among the things Palmieris family has held onto is a weathered parking ticket from the JFK airport that appears to say May 1 in small letters in an upper corner and Lot 1 in the center, along with small print about the lot minders limited liability.

When Palmieris body turned up in the river all those years ago, a Vermont state police detective contacted law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts and Connecticut about missing persons, including two in particular: Dube and DeCaro. But, police reports from that era indicate those were conveyed as dead ends by other agencies.

Victor DeCaro was last seen in May 1972 at a bar near the Connecticut River in Agawam, shown above on July 30, 2020. His body was pulled from the river July 3, 1972 in Windsor, Ct.Greg Saulmon / The Republican

Their bodies were never publicly linked through a ballistics report which is a curious thing, since it existed, Sinclair said. The ballistics report by the Connecticut State Police lab, in the state where DeCaros body was found, sat dormant. Why that was remains unclear.

The laboratory in 1972 identified a common .38-caliber pistol to link the killings. Soffen pleaded guilty to Dubes murder in 1973, plus the murder of Perrot with a different weapon. He remained mum on any other killings linked to the .38.

Sinclair said during initial interrogations after Soffens arrest, he made a vague reference about the man found in the river in Vermont being a nobody from Springfield but there was never any apparent follow-up.

Before his retirement, Sinclair said his only solace is having found the Palmieri family and reunited them with their fathers remains, bittersweet as it may be.

Ive done this for many years worked really hard to connect a person who was murdered or who had died alone with their family members, Sinclair said. And the worst outcome is to realize that no one really cared about that person. Vincent Palmieri had a loving family who had wondered about him for years and years.

Coming Monday: Three victims, one gun. What did they have in common?

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The Gun: Vincent Palmieri disappeared from Staten Island in 1972; his death has a mysterious link to Western - MassLive.com

The White House Has Become a Militarized Island in Downtown DC – Washingtonian

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The view over the South Lawn in July 2020. Photograph by Andrew Beaujon.

Last week, I walked around the White House twice. The first time, when I merely had to navigate the barriers that went up after the protests following the George Floyd killing, it took me a little more than a half-hour. By the time I came back for a second lap a few days later, a previously open pedestrian path in the Ellipse had been closed off. So it now took about 45 minutes.

And the place remains a fortification-construction site. Access to the pedestrian mall on Pennsylvania Avenue has been cut off since the first night of the protests that followed George Floyds death, and even though the protesters have gone, it will remain cut off at least for the rest of the summer. Meanwhile, a long-planned project to replace the White House fence with a higher one has recently occasioned a large white-painted wooden wall along the south side of the complex, which means the closest view most people can get of the Peoples House is part of its top floor. The Secret Service closed the sidewalk along E Street in 2017, so you have to trek through a maze of bicycle rack barriers and police tape in the Ellipse to see even that.

The story of the White House cutting itself off from the surrounding city is nearly as old as the United States, and spans all parties. Thomas Jefferson was aghast at the idea that the President might live in anything resembling a palace, and for years the building and its grounds were startlingly open. Presidents used to greet visitors in the East Room every day at lunchtime. In 1841, a drunk threw stones at President John Tyler while he perambulated the South Grounds. Security was gradually hardened as the republic turned into a superpower. But even after two world wars, the grounds wereoften breachednotably in 1974 by an Army private in a stolen helicopter who touched down on the South Lawn before losing a dogfight with Maryland State Police by the Washington Monument.

In the age of terrorism, the building became much more difficult to approach. After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing during Bill Clintons presidency, Pennsylvania Avenue, which used to be a thoroughfare crowded with cars and busses, was turned into a pedestrian mall between 15th and 17th streets. After 9/11, even pedestrian traffic was cut off for three years, a time when Washington City Paper dubbed the District Jersey Barrier City.In fact, when the current fence-raising effort began, advocates said it would enable them to take down these sort of improvised barriers that keep people away from the property line. I wouldnt bet on it.

I started my walks both times from Black Lives Matter Plaza, near the spot where authorities tear-gassed protesters on June 1 so President Trump could execute a bizarre photo op in front of St. Johns Church. The space, which starts at 16th and H streets, Northwest, was exponentially quieter than it was in mid-June, when it was packed with street performers, protesters, families, live-streamers, TV reporters from foreign outlets, and vendors lining the sidewalks. Now, in the brain-melting heat of late July, the plaza was mostly empty, save for the odd group of people wearing lanyards one day and a few others posing in front of Mayor Bowsers Black Lives Matter mural on another.

The high fence that blocked access to Lafayette Square Park was decorated with photographs of people killed by police and anti-Trump slogans. Looking through it, you could see several rows of barricades in placesJersey barriers, bollards, more bicycle-rack fencingvestiges of the protests. Clark Mills statue of Andrew Jackson reared absurdly in the distance, surrounded by even more fencing. Beyond that, you could just make out the White House.

The Park Service told me it needs to keep the barriers up at Lafayette Square to assess damage from the protests, damage that by now is two months old. The Secret Service doesnt intend to take down the barriers where 15th and 17th streets meet Pennsylvania Avenue until the end of August, saying theyre necessary for the White House fence replacement project, even though: 1) it previously issued a press release saying they were security measures because of the demonstrations; and 2) Pennsylvania had been largely open since construction on the fence project began last July.

About a dozen Secret Service police hustled out of the New Executive Office Building as I headed south on 17th Street on my second trip, as signs mounted that someone important was about to Do Something. Police vehicles paused along the street, flashers on, and I hustled across the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue, spurred by the very Washington worry that Id get caught waiting for a motorcade. Some people I passed, visitors to Washington, were hoping for exactly the opposite and urged me to stay put if we wanted to see the Presidents car. I decided not to explain I was actually here to look at fences.

The Ellipse is no longer closed off completely, even though the closure of the E Street sidewalk means you have to walk through the mostly useless parks twisty paths to get to a White House view. On my first trip, I made it to the Zero Milestone and could just see the top of the White House. On my second, that vantage was closed off, so I had to walk all the way around the Ellipse, past a demonstration that urged a Congressional investigation into Vanessa Guillens death, and along Constitution Avenue to 15th Street. It was, too, mostly quiet, with February-sized crowds in the middle of what would normally be high tourist season. (I passed one guy wearing a shirt that said Waterboarding Instructor. Would you like to guess whether he was wearing a mask?)

President Trumps position to the rest of DC was a defensive crouch even before the pandemic and the George Floyd protests. In contrast to the Obamas, he hasnt visited a single restaurant that wasnt in his hotel a few blocks away, for instance. His trips to the Saint John Paul II shrine in Northeast and to Walter Reed could be among his longest car trips in the District. That makes the barriers seem higher and the bicycle rack fences more appropriate for guarding a trench at the Somme than for protecting the executive mansion.

A few years ago my family and I showed a Russian friend around DC, and when we stopped by the White House, she noted how unfamiliar it was to her that we know where our President lives, and that we could get so close to the building. Shed be a lot more comfortable with the current arrangement.

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The White House Has Become a Militarized Island in Downtown DC - Washingtonian

State confirms sighting of great white shark off Bailey Island, urges caution in wake of fatal attack – Press Herald

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Officers with the Maine Marine Patrol confirmed the sighting of a great white shark off the coast of Bailey Island on Friday, leading state officials to urge swimmers and paddlers to exercise caution around seals and schools of fish, which are known to attract sharks.

The sighting around 11:30 a.m. occurred near Pond Island Ledges, east of Bailey Island and near the site of Mondays fatal attack by a great white. It comes after two unconfirmed sightings on Thursday, according to a statement by the Department of Marine Resources, which oversees the marine patrol.

Two unconfirmed shark sightings yesterday plus one confirmed sighting of a great white shark today near Harpswell reaffirm our message that people need to use caution when recreating in or on the ocean, Maine Marine Patrol Maj. Rob Beal said in a written statement.

It is the departments plan to continue to closely monitor shark presence in our waters, to notify local municipalities and to work with (state park officials) to make sure they have the information they need to take action to ensure the safety of visitors to Maines beaches and waterfront, Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in the news release.

Keliher said the reports of sightings, seals washing up on shore with injuries from sharks and other data that confirm shark activity from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia means swimmers, paddlers and beachgoers should exercise caution throughout the rest of the summer.

The sighting of the shark was made by the pilot of a drone who took a picture and sent it to the marine patrol, said Jeff Nichols, a spokesman for the department. Nichols did not identify the drone pilot.

The image was sent to Gregory Skomal, a shark expert who also manages the recreational fisheries program at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and he confirmed that it as a great white shark. Nichols did not know whether Skomal estimated the sharks size.

Park officials on Friday eased some water recreation restrictions at two popular beaches after the states first fatal shark attack on Monday off Bailey Island. The sighting was far enough away from shore that the eased restrictions will remain in effect, said Jim Britt, a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Our lifeguards and rangers are really on active alert on the beaches, Britt said. They have complete authority to clear the water if theres any sense of insecurity.

The departments Bureau of Parks and Lands said it would permit waist-deep recreation at Popham Beach and Reid State Park. The lagoon at Reid State Park remains open, as well. It was not immediately clear whether the sighting Friday would lead to renewed restrictions.

Swimmers at Ferry Beach and Crescent Beach will continue to be restricted to waist-deep water. Earlier Friday, the state said that it would consider lifting restrictions by Monday if there are no further shark sightings, but Fridays sighting would appear to scuttle that plan.

The decision to ease some of the restrictions was made in consultation with the Maine Marine Patrol, which has been searching for sharks in Casco Bay since Monday, when a great white shark attacked and killed Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, a seasonal resident of Bailey Island in Harpswell.

Holowach was attacked as she swam 20 yards from shore with her daughter, who was not injured. It was only the second shark attack ever reported in Maine. In 2010, a scuba diver off Eastport escaped injury by fending off an 8-foot shark with a video camera.

On Wednesday, the marine patrol responded to two reports of shark sightings near Popham Beach in Phippsburg, including one report from lifeguards who said they saw a shark chasing a seal. The marine patrol searched the area and did not find any sharks, but did spot an ocean sunfish and seals feeding on fish. Ocean sunfish are harmless, but also have a fin that can be seen above the surface, and can be mistaken for a sharks dorsal fin.

The marine patrol asks that anyone who sees a shark contact them and provide a location and photos, if possible.

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State confirms sighting of great white shark off Bailey Island, urges caution in wake of fatal attack - Press Herald

A Dramatic New Island Resort Opens In CroatiaAnd Americans Are Allowed To Visit – Forbes

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Suite views from Masline Resort

Croatia tourism is booming, with the tiny Republic in Southeast Europe among the few EU destinations allowing Americans to visit. New resorts are also coming to meet future demand (two Four Seasons Hotel projects on the island of Hvar and in Kupari, Hilton Costabella, Marriott in Split and a new Aman resort in Cavtat are currently in the pipeline.) On a recent visit, I had a birdseye view of the dramatic newMaslina Resortlocated on Hvar Island's stunning Maslinica Bay. Hvar and the surrounding Pakleni Islands are filled with superyachts this time of year.

Maslina Resort is surrounded by a rich pine forest and positioned overlooking the Adriatic Sea. It is an easy stroll along the coast that leads you to the UNESCO-protected town of Stari Grad. Created as a sustainability-focused luxury boutique resort, the new property opens in August and offers up 33 rooms, 17 suites, and three villas, all inspired by nature's elements.

Maslina Resort on the island of Hvar in Croatia

Utilizing extensive gardens and terraces, eight of the suites have their own private plunge pools overlooking the bay. The Villas are perfectly positioned along the waterfront and have stunning indoor and outdoor living spaces, and private heated infinity pools. My favorite is Villa Uvala with its own gym, five bedrooms and extreme privacy.

Sea views from the restaurant at Maslina Resort

Guests can choose between four and five bedrooms, but the villas make you feel like a local in your own home, including a professional-style kitchen to add on your own sommelier and chef services. All of the soft goods are organic, comfy king-sized beds, bathrooms with walk-in showers, and wooden bathtubs that contribute to the feeling of being connected to nature.

The resort also features a natural beach, heated infinity, and family pools, as well as a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant (led by American Top Master Chef Patricia Yeo), beach bar, and organic garden. Other amenities will include a Pharomatiq Spa, a library, a Wine & Culture Club, and a kids playroom.

Suite views from Maslina Resort

The company behind the project Paradox Hospitality explains sustainability was forefront in the design, and include natural and local materials; a built-in modern heat recovery system; natural green roofs; ventilation designed to reduce the use of A/C including sensors for the windows; non-chlorinated pools; an organic garden; certified organic linen; andbiodegradable options for slippers, straws and disposable underwear for spa treatments.

They add, To cultivate the same feeling upon first visiting Maslinica Bay, native and local species are used to maintain the landscape language already in place, where wild Mediterranean vegetation thrives thanks to thick Aleppo pines, mature olive trees, and fragrant herb bushes.

Beach club at Maslina Resort

The low-profile architecture includes numerous scattered pavilions, all with ventilated wooden facades that seamlessly blend in with the island environment. The interior design is inspired by the four elements of nature, which helped the designers construct a palette driven by the cerulean Adriatic Sea, salty summer breeze, pearly white rocks, and dense green forest.

The historic town of Hvar aerial view, Dalmatia, Croatia.

Even though Americans cannot visit most of the EU, the Croatian Institute for Public Health recently announced that non-EU citizens, including those from the United States, can enter Croatia as tourists, as long as they provide evidence of a negative test for COVID-19 within 48 hours of their arrival. Important to note given the fluidity of the pandemic situation, the Croatian Government is posting any new requirements on their website, please check prior to making travel plans.

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A Dramatic New Island Resort Opens In CroatiaAnd Americans Are Allowed To Visit - Forbes

Amazon makes offer to Town of Grand Island; opposition persists – WGRZ.com

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The Coalition for Responsible Economic Development for Grand Island has collected more than 1,300 signatures on a petition opposing the project.

GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. Discussions continue when it comes to whether Amazon will build its next national distribution center on Grand Island.

Now Amazon has offered the town $10 million in exchange for project approval, but opposition from community members grows.

The proposed complex on Long Road would be nearly four million square feet.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said last week it would be one the biggest construction projects this region has ever seen.

"At a time in which thousands and thousands of people have lost jobs as a result of the impact on the economy due to the pandemic, I do not think we can turn a blind eye to Amazon and the 1,000-plus jobs that they are offering," Poloncarz said.

The latest development with Amazon and Grand Island came on Wednesday, in a filing to the Grand Island Town Supervisor and the Grand Island Town Board.

According to the filing, "TC Buffalo proposes a payment of $10 million, to be deposited into a trust fund in three equal increments after the Project obtains the necessary approvalsthe first payment to be made upon commencement of construction, the second payment on or before on before one year after the date of commencement of construction, and the final payment within 30 days after issuance by the Town of a final unconditional certificate of occupancy."

The filing goes on to say, "TC Buffalo proposes that a portion of the payment be used for various infrastructure improvements desired by the Town relative to the Project, such as road and water utility improvements, and that the remainder be used to fund various community benefits, including funding towards the construction of a community center and for improvements to the Grand Island Bike Trail."

View the filing in its entirety here.

"That is a paltry amount given the amount of impact that this project will have for our community," said Cathy Rayhill, the spokesperson for Coalition for Responsible Economic Development for Grand Island (CRED4GI).

Rayhill is one of many community members opposed to the Amazon warehouse coming to Grand Island.

"There's the economic cost-benefit component. There's the traffic, the additional traffic. There's the impact to our environment, where there's sensitive ecological environment here," Rayhill said.

Friday night, CRED4GI held an educational meeting both in person and streamed online. More than 40 people were tuned in via Zoom, with several others attending in person.

Rayhill told 2 On Your Side within just one month, their grassroots organization was able to collect 1,300 signatures from people who live on Grand Island who are also opposed to the project.

Their goal is to get at least 2,000 signatures by Monday.

The organization's website states the warehouse "would irreversibly alter this close-knit residential community and endanger our internationally significant wildlife and waterways."

The project moving forward is largely dependent on the Grand Island Town Board.

Last week, Poloncarz said, "I'm hopeful that when it finally comes up for a vote in the Town of Grand Island that they approve the project."

He added, "This is too important a project for our community to turn its back on because if we turn our back on this project, it's basically sending a message to a lot of these other mega projects that do exist out here: Don't come to Erie County."

Rayhill and those who signed the petition have a very different view.

"What I would ask of the Town Board, is listen to the people who have studied this closely and are recommending and advising you not to approve it," Rayhill said.

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Amazon makes offer to Town of Grand Island; opposition persists - WGRZ.com

Report details the promise of Plum Island – News from southeastern Connecticut – theday.com

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Here's a summertime day trip worth dreaming about.

One day a few years from now, you take the Long Island ferry to Orient Point. A short walk from the terminal is a museum that tells you all about mysterious Plum Island.

After taking it in, you get on another ferry, which brings you to the island, a remote place that, as of now, few people have ever seen. A guided tour takes you through a vast, unspoiled nature preserve and the restored remains of a military post with a compelling story.

If that doesn't satisfy your Plum Island fix, you can book an overnight stay at a 150-year-old lighthouse.

This is one possible future for the isolated, 840-acre place that lies just 8 miles south of the region's shoreline. Another is that the U.S. government, which owns the island, sells it to the highest bidder, and the public is shut out forever.

A long-running effort to prevent the latter possibility just reached a significant milestone. A report has been released that offers the first detailed vision for the island, one that mixes conservation, research, historic preservation and public access.

At the moment, the island, home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and off-limits to the public for decades, is still set to be sold off once thelab closes and moves to Kansas by 2023.

But the 72-page report, called "Envision Plum Island," lays out a road map for turning it into a prized public jewel under state and local ownership. The report is the work of the Preserve Plum Island Coalition, 110 organizations that banded together to prevent the sale.

Three years ago, the coalition was asked by Congress, "What do you see instead?" Its answer is a suite of uses that maintain the island's key features: undisturbed nature, historic buildings and an active laboratory complex.

The plan's specifics will inform the ongoing debate in Congress, where there are hopeful signs about the island's future, including a measure passed by the House on Friday.

"The tide definitely has turned, but we still have a lot of work to do," said Chris Cryder of Save the Sound, one of two groups that took the lead in creating the report.

The plan

Envision Plum Island is the result of two years of meetings involving hundreds of people to articulate a plan. It was led by Save the Sound and the Nature Conservancy in New York. The report's main points include the following:

Conservation: The bulk of the island, 640 acres, would be a preserve supported by partnerships among federal, state and local governments, nonprofits and volunteer groups.

The report notes that as many as 227 bird species, nearly a quarter of all species in the U.S. and Canada, have been sighted there. In addition, hundreds of harbor seals come ashore to rest, and the surrounding marine habitats host rare sea turtles and other creatures. Yet the waters remain mostly unexplored, the report says.

At a news conference to unveil the report on July 22, Steve Ressler, a scientific diver, noted the island's striking biodiversity.

"It has one of the most diverse and most abundant species compositions on the East Coast of the United States," he said.

Research: The laboratory complex used by the animal disease center, on a 125-acre campus at the island's western end, would be available for reuse. Suitable activities include renewable energy, biotech, health, cybersecurity and climate science, the report says.

This would support the goal of job retention pursued by the town of Southold, N.Y., of which Plum Island is a part.

In addition, archaeologists and Native Americans would investigate life on the island before European settlement.

Historic preservation: The buildings of Fort Terry, a former coastal defense fortification, would be stabilized and restored, with application made to place them on the National Register of Historic Places. One would be refurbished into a dormitory for researchers.

The report notes that Fort Terry is by far the most intact and historically important of a string of island forts established in eastern Long Island Sound in the Spanish-American War era.

The island's other significant structure is an 1869 lighthouse already listed on the National Register. No longer a functioning aid to navigation, it would be restored and possibly used as a bed-and-breakfast or a visitor center.

The more recent history of the animal disease lab also should be preserved, the report notes.

"Even though Plum Island has appeared in novels that heightened fear, films made frightening references to it, and conspiracy theorists spread rumors about activities there, great things were done there," the report says.

Public access: The Plum Island property includes a 9.5-acre ferry terminal at Orient Point that serves the lab. This could be used by both a successor lab and the public.

Visitors' first stop could be a museum at the terminal that outlines the island's story.

Louise Harrison of Save the Sound said at the news conference that limiting ticket sales for the ferry might be a way to control public access in the interest of protecting the island's natural resources.

"We want to love Plum Island but not love it to death," she said.

Preventing the sale

Before any of this can happen, Congress would have to repeal laws from 2009 and 2012that mandate the sale of the island to the highest bidder. That has been the primary goal of the Preserve Plum Island Coalition.

Those laws bypass the standard process for disposing of surplus federal property, which normally would be offered first to other federal agencies, then to the state where it's located, and finally put on the open market.

Instead, a public sale was mandated in the hope that it would generate a significant sum to help fund the animal disease center's replacement, the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility in Manhattan, Kan., according to Greg Jacob, a policy adviser for the Nature Conservancy in New York.

But the new lab, which is nearing completion, has since been fully funded, and Plum Island's likely value on the open market has decreased. In 2014, Southold zoned the island into a large conservation district and a smaller research district, which would prevent other uses if the island falls into private hands, Jacob said. A future owner could not build condominiums or a golf course, for example.

Last year the coalition had the island appraised in light of the zoning restrictions and found it was worth $17.5 million, a third of what the government had expected to sell it for, Jacob said.

Still, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the lab, sees the island's sale as a revenue source for other projects, he said.

Over the years, several bills repealing the 2009 and 2012 laws have been passed by the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, but one has never passed in the Senate, Jacob said.

Two similar bills are now in committee in both houses of Congress, one sponsored by Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., and the other by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

"We need to ensure that our neighbors are able to experience what we've been able to experience and to keep (Plum Island) as protected and as beautiful as it is today," Zeldin said at the news conference.

Both bills are stand-alone efforts, which are harder to move through the legislative process, so the strategy of the coalition, working with congressional partners, has been to insert repeal language into broader measures like appropriations bills.

While that failed last year, the coalition succeeded in getting a measure passed that temporarily stopped the General Services Administration, the government agency tasked with the sale, from actively marketing the island.

This year, repeal language was included in a House appropriations bill until last Tuesday, when it was removed. But an amendment was added by Zeldin and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, that continued the restriction on GSA marketing until September 2021. The bill was passed by the House on Friday.

"I'm optimistic that it's still in play, that we can still make this happen," Jacob said, noting that repeal is still a possibility in the Senate version of the appropriations bill, which has not yet passed.

Some members of Congress reluctant to back repeal of the sale question whether the island would continue to cost the government money in terms of maintenance and security if there is no plan for its future, Jacob said.

"I think the report is going to be very helpful because it answers that question," he said.

j.ruddy@theday.com

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How a small B.C. island can help us understand the role of racism in disease treatment – CBC.ca

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While D'Arcy Island, a picturesque island in theGulf Islands National Park Reserve, may be the perfect pandemic getaway this summer, a researcher says the tragic history of the island illustrates how racism has informed the way we approach and treat diseaseslike COVID-19 for well over 100 years.

Renisa Mawani, a sociology professor at the University of British Columbia, has studied the history of the island, which wasused as aleprosy colony between 1891 to 1924.

The first people sent to the island were fivemen from Victoria's Chinatown, who were deemed to have leprosy by a medical health inspector.

"It wasn't until several years later that a doctor actually went to the island and confirmed that the men had leprosy," Mawani said.

It was a particularly harsh environment. Unlike other leprosy colonies, D'Arcy Island hadno doctors,no caretakers, and no caregivers.

Mawani said the men were sent supplies every three months from Victoria, located 17 kilometres away, but were essentiallyleft to take care of themselves.

In total there were 49 men sent there, 44 of whom were Chinese. The lack of care,Mawani says, was part of the prevailing attitude toward Chinese settlers in Canada.Anti-Chinese racism was enshrined in lawthrough 1885's Chinese Head Tax and 1923'sChinese Exclusion Act.

"These menthe Chinese men in particular were sent to the island to die or to be deported, whichever came first," she said.

Eventually, 20 of these men weredeported to China and at least 17 mendied. In 1924, the remaining men were sent to nearby Bentinck Island, close to the William Head Quarantine Station.

Mawani says the history of the island has some commonalities with thecoronavirus pandemic.

"Leprosy was associated with foreignness and with Chinese men in the 19th century, and today we see that COVID is also associated with China, and Chinese-ness," she said.

"We've heard many racial slurs from President Trump but also we've seen rises in anti-Asian violence, and anti-Asian racism in Canada, the U.S., and globally."

When a disease is racialized, Mawani says, it can have a profound impact on how people are treated or cared for. In fact, adisproportionate number of COVID-related complications and deaths have affectedIndigenous, Black and other communities of colour.

She says the history of the island can help us understand how racism continues to affect the way we treat disease.

"We're encouraged to believe that we're all in this together, but we're not."

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How a small B.C. island can help us understand the role of racism in disease treatment - CBC.ca

Mandatory Evacuation issued for Ocracoke Island – Island Free Press

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The Ocracoke Control Group met at 9:00 a.m. today, July 31, 2020, to discuss the need for an evacuation order for Ocracoke Island in advance of Hurricane Isaias affecting the Eastern North Carolina area. The group has recommended that the Hyde County Board of Commissioners enact a mandatory evacuation of the island.

Based on the recommendation from the Ocracoke Control Group, The Hyde County Board of Commissioners has ordered a mandatory visitor evacuation of Ocracoke, effective at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, July 31, 2020. A mandatory resident and nonresident property owner evacuation of Ocracoke will be effective at 6:00 a.m., Saturday, August 1, 2020.

Ocracoke entry is currently restricted to residents, homeowners, vendors, and other essential personnel requested by Federal, State, or County officials until the evacuation orders begin. You will need an Ocracoke re-entry pass or adequate documentation on the vehicle to be allowed on any ferries inbound to Ocracoke. Once the evacuation orders are active, only emergency personnel will be allowed entry to the island.

Individuals should be aware that the sound-side ferry routes are already operating at a greatly reduced capacity due to shoaling in a key channel. It is highly recommended that you utilize the Ocracoke-Hatteras ferry route as the sound routes will reach capacity fast. Everyone should begin their evacuations as soon as possible.

The latest report from the National Weather Service has Hurricane Isaiass wind measured at 80 mph. The first impacts from this system will likely be increased swell/rip current risks beginning today and continuing through early next week. There is no major difference in the track as of yet but confidence in the track is increasing. The Storm Surge Probability estimates have not yet been issued. The current earliest time of tropical-storm-force winds is currently predicted for Sunday night.

The Hyde County Emergency Operations Center has been activated and can be reached at 252-926-3715. The Hyde County Emergency Services Department will continue to monitor the forecast for Hurricane Isaias and issue advisories as appropriate. For the most current and official information please monitor the National Hurricane Center website at https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/.

FERRY SCHEDULE DURING THE EVACUATION

Per the NCDOT, the Ocracoke-Hatteras route will run its published schedule, with an additional ferry making unscheduled runs as necessary. The final departure to Hatteras will be Sunday afternoon or evening depending on conditions.

The schedule for the Pamlico Sound ferry routes will be as follows:

Friday, July 31:

Saturday, Aug. 1:

Sunday, Aug. 2:

TheOcracoke Expresspassenger ferry has suspended service until further notice.

Hurricane Isaias is approaching quickly, and has the potential to create serious flooding and storm surge on Ocracoke Island, said Ferry Division Director Harold Thomas. We hope everyone will heed the evacuation orders for their own safety.

Evacuation procedures will remain in effect for all Ocracoke-bound ferries until Hyde County emergency officials lift the evacuation orders.

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Mandatory Evacuation issued for Ocracoke Island - Island Free Press

WATCH NOW: New Life Community Church welcomes Grand Island children to in-person vacation Bible school – Grand Island Independent

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Grand Island children are able to learn about God and engage in fun activities as part of an in-person event this week.

New Life Community Church hosted its first in-person vacation Bible school session Monday at Pier Park. The daily event continues through Friday.

Those attending Mondays session were split into four groups: crafts, Bible verse, Bible lesson and group time. After rotating through the groups, participants were served snacks.

What we do is we come together, we have songs, a skit, a Bible story and crafts, said co-coordinator Eric Miller. They are all tied together with a curriculum that was written by my wife (Tonya) that teaches the Scripture to kids. It teaches them about Jesus and shares the truth of Gods love for kids.

Miller said a question New Life was faced with a few months ago was whether to have VBS at this time. He said the church met, talked about this and decided that if the Central District Health Department was in Phase 3, the church would proceed with VBS.

We want to go to the children of our community and that is why we have VBS outside of the church. We want to take that message of hope and love to our community, he said. There are several of our church kids here and several from the community. We are excited to do that and represent Christ to our community.

This was the first VBS New Life has had in many years.

Miller said this years VBS was planned before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

He said 28 elementary-age kids attended Mondays session. A number of precautions were implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Bible verse station on the Pier Park tennis courts, a volunteer laid out Hula Hoops to help kids maintain a proper social distance.

Obviously, in a setting like this, you are not going to be 100% accurate in keeping social distancing, but we are doing our best, Miller said.

We are asking the teachers and the group leaders to wear masks any time they are within close proximity to the kids. We love the kids and want to keep them safe. But at the same time, we wanted to bring a certain level of normalcy back to our community.

Rev. Sean Amen, lead pastor at New Life, said it is imperative that the church continue to meet together and maintain its outreach to the community. VBS this week allows New Life to share the gospel with the Grand Island community and give kids a sense of normalcy.

I think our kids, in many ways, have had normal ripped away, Amen said. I even heard that language with my own kids. They make comments like Maybe after corona we can go to the zoo or do (other) things. The sense of stuff that you and I had when we were growing up has been pulled away from them. We are trying to give kids that sense of normality.

Amen said he was impressed by the turnout for the first session of VBS. About 10% of the kids were from New Life, while the remaining were from the Grand Island community.

Miller said if kids want to participate in VBS this week, they can do so by showing up at 9 a.m. at Pier Park to register. There is no cost to participate.

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WATCH NOW: New Life Community Church welcomes Grand Island children to in-person vacation Bible school - Grand Island Independent

ICMR to host global web conference on science, ethics of COVID-19 vaccine starting 4.30 pm today – Firstpost

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tech2 News StaffJul 30, 2020 11:05:47 IST

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)has planned to hostan online, multi-country symposium on 'Novel Ideas in Science and Ethics of Vaccines Against Covid-19 Pandemic' on 30 July.

The web symposium willsee leading medical experts and scientists as speakersandpanellists on different themes in the science and ethics around a vaccine for the coronavirus pandemic.

The event would be conducted from 4.30 pm to 6.45 pm today, and livestreamed on ICMR's website.

A vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from German biotechnology company CureVac is administered to a volunteer at the start of a clinical test series at a university clinic in Tuebingen, Germany. Reuters

The first session byDr Anthony S Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USAis a talkon'Confronting the pandemic'.

This will be followed by remarks from experts on 'Timely & Safe Towards a Covid-19 vaccine - Role of vaccines in ending epidemics'.

Two panel discussions on 'Novel Ideas in Vaccine Development, rollout, and adopting emerging evidence in pandemic situations', and 'Ethics of different development approaches, equity of participation in development & community engagement'areexpected to follow,where many world-leading expertsare expected to share their views.

The 25+ speakersat thesymposium includeProf (Dr) Balram Bhargava, Director General of ICMR; Prof Nir Eyal, Director, Center for Population-level Bioethics (CPLB) at Rutgers School of Public Health; Prof (Dr) Randeep Guleria, Director of AIIMS, New Delhi; Prof Adrian Hill, Director, Jenner Institute & Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford;Prof Adam Kamradt-Scott, Director, Global Health Security Network;Prof Gagandeep Kang, Director, Translational Health Science & Technology Institute;Prof Heidi Larson, Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP) and Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, among several others.

Findthe detailed agenda for the symposiumhere.

Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.

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New warship HMS Trent embarks for the Mediterranean to join Nato operation – expressandstar.com

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The coronavirus pandemic has not stopped one of the Royal Navys newest warships being made ready for deployment in record time.

HMS Trent has set sail for the Mediterranean, where she will bolster UK and Nato forces in the region.

The commanding officers young son waved as he watched his fathers ship leave Portsmouth Harbour on Monday afternoon.

Earlier the vessels proud crew stood to attention beside her as she was officially commissioned at a quiet ceremony.

Among them was 18-year-old Robson Gelder, the youngest member of the ships company, whose parents were among the many friends and family watching the proceedings live online, a necessity to ensure social distancing.

The 295ft (90m) River class patrol ship sporting a blue stag on her side is designed for counter-piracy, anti-smuggling, fishery protection, border patrol, counter-terrorism and maritime defence duties.

The ceremony, at Portsmouth Naval Base, took place in bright sunshine in front of a handful of distinguished members of the armed forces.

A band from the Royal Marines School of Music was on hand to perform songs including the national anthem.

Following prayers led by Reverend Martin Evans, the crew joined him in calling out Bless our ship! as he wished them good luck.

Addressing the crew, HMS Trents commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander James Wallington-Smith said: It is my distinct privilege and pleasure to stand here this morning as the commanding officer on such a distinguished and memorable day.

He added that it was a great sadness that friends and family could not attend the commissioning ceremony as they normally would have before the pandemic.

It is the understated support of all those around us who form the backbone on which we are able to to our job, he said.

Without their own hard work and sacrifice, we would not be able to make it to the start date on time.

Lt Cdr Wallington-Smith also praised the incredible work that went into turning HMS Trent from sheets of steel to a fully operational warship.

HMS Trent was built on the Clyde in Scotland by BAE Systems and delivered to the Royal Navy in December.

Since then she has been going through sea training and workouts to prepare her for her first deployment.

The new warship will train and patrol with Nato forces as part of Operation Sea Guardian, which seeks to deter international crime and terrorism.

Lt Cdr Wallington-Smith said: The entire ships company have worked tirelessly in difficult circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic to prepare HMS Trent for this day.

I could not be prouder of them and everyone within Portsmouth Naval Base and beyond who has helped us reach this point.

About two-thirds of the 65 ratings and officers who make up HMS Trents ships company will crew the vessel at any one time.

Engineering Technician (Weapon Engineering) Gelder joined the Navy when he was just 16 and has already served on flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

He told the PA news agency that going from such a huge vessel to a small ship like HMS Trent will be a change, but he feels like one of the family.

HMS Trent is believed to be the fastest generated warship, the time taken between completion of construction to deployment, in recent memory.

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New warship HMS Trent embarks for the Mediterranean to join Nato operation - expressandstar.com

James Woods Goes After Jerry Nadler For ‘Antifa Is A Myth’ Comments – The Union Journal

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Conservative actor James Woods went after Rep Jerry Nadler in a series of tweets for claiming that antifa rioters are a myth.

On Sunday, Jerry Nadler told a member of the press that the current violent antifa riots taking place across the country, in cities like Portland, Chicago, and Seattle, are a total myth thats being spread only in Washington D.C.

This is, of course, contrary to the mountains of video and photographic evidence that exists, but that doesnt seem to bother Mr Nadler at all.

Nadler was then slammed by multiple people, including Senator Tom Cotton.

Nadler denying antifa is in Portland is kind of like Baghdad Bob denying there were American tanks in Baghdad back in the day, Cotton said.

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I mean, you can just look at the videos posted in recent weeks. People are carrying the flag of antifa and wearing t-shirts and spray painting it on buildings, he added.

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James Woods Goes After Jerry Nadler For 'Antifa Is A Myth' Comments - The Union Journal

Stimulus negotiations: ‘Productive’ meetings don’t mean progress – CNN

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The somewhat positive tone sought to obscure a cold reality, according to people briefed on the talks: the two sides remain nowhere near a deal.

What to watch: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will be back on Capitol Hill for meetings. Senate Republicans hold their closed-door conference lunch at 12:45 p.m. ET, with a leadership news conference afterward.

The area where there was at least some progress on Monday was on the education piece of the broader proposals. Republicans have put $105 billion on the table, split between K-12 and colleges, with a chunk of the funds directed explicitly toward the costs associated with schools that are reopening. Democrats remain wary of tying anything to reopenings amid the pandemic and have pressed for more topline money.

But the negotiators did a deep dive into the numbers on Monday, which is a key step toward starting to lay the groundwork for what is actually needed for an agreement.

As Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer put it: "By going to these specific numbers and what each side thinks they can do with their dollar allocation, it really helps us understand that and move together in a better direction. That's what we spent time doing."

Again, that seems like a fairly pro forma part of any negotiation, but getting to a more granular level has been something that's been missing from the talks up to this point.

The tell

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out an unvarnished read of the current state of the negotiations in a private call with her caucus on Monday afternoon, according to two people on the call.

As Pelosi ticked through the biggest priorities for any agreement -- from education, to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to unemployment benefits to state and local funding, Pelosi made clear there has been little or no progress toward an agreement on any of them.

She reiterated that funds for the Postal Service and money for election protection remains "a big fight for us."

But, according to one of the people, she also expressed clear confidence that White House negotiators would start moving her way. (On state and local funding, she noted that while GOP negotiators haven't moved off their proposal of no new money, they soon would do just that. They "just don't know it yet" Pelosi told her members.)

Pelosi's comments underscore the view among Democrats right now -- that they hold the cards and that it's only a matter of time before the Trump administration, cognizant of the need to avoid an economic collapse with potentially massive electoral consequences, will come their way.

And yet: There is still no tangible evidence that will actually occur. On the federal unemployment enhancement, one of, if not the, central flash points in the talks, Pelosi and Schumer made clear that the White House has not moved off its longer-term proposal of cutting down to $200-per-week the original $600 flat rate.

"They're sticking to their position," Schumer told reporters on Monday. "And we're sticking to ours," Pelosi quickly followed.

The negotiators

President Donald Trump is more or less absent from the current talks, save for tweets and verbal jabs directed at Pelosi and Schumer, though Mnuchin and Meadows have made clear he's briefed regularly.

That has left all eyes, both from Democrats and Republicans, on Meadows and Mnuchin. It's a dynamic, several people involved tell CNN, that nobody has quite figured out yet.

Mnuchin is known as the deal maker in the administration. He's been crucial to locking in several deals with Pelosi, including the prior emergency coronavirus relief packages. He regularly cites those deals and his relationship with Pelosi, both publicly and privately, as something that underscores his integral role in the administration, people who speak to him say.

But that deal making has regularly rubbed Senate Republicans the wrong way, and the trust in him remains fairly low, multiple Senate Republicans tell CNN. Still, at a time of fractured partisan politics, he's one of the few people in town that can claim negotiating success.

Then there's Meadows, the former GOP congressman whose career was spent primarily blowing up deals and creating major headaches for his leadership in his role as leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

While he was the incoming chief of staff for the original $2.2 trillion relief bill, he wasn't a key negotiator. That was left to Mnuchin and since departed White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland, a former long-time Senate staffer who played a central role at the time.

How the Meadows-Mnuchin team works through the current complex dynamic remains an open question to, well, just about everyone.

Schumer, in the closed door meeting, joked about the public perception of the two, according to one source -- nothing that Mnuchin was there to make deals and Meadows was there to blow things up. His point, the source said, was trying to figure out who was playing which role this time around, noting that it was Mnuchin who should bring Meadows along toward a deal. The answer to whether that ends up being the case will go a long way to determining when -- and if -- a deal is possible at all.

The timeline

Pelosi, on the call with her members, made clear that the goal for Democratic negotiators is to reach an agreement this week. But she acknowledged the reality of the current state of play, noting, according to the person on the call, "I don't know if that's possible."

In other words, negotiators are already looking toward next week as the likeliest timeline -- which is two weeks after the deadline that was supposed to spur action: the expiration for the federal unemployment benefit enhancement.

The urgency

Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and member of McConnell's leadership team, underscored a dynamic that is about to become much more relevant if things continue apace with no progress.

"I can't see how we can go home and tell people we failed," Cornyn told reporters Monday night. "I think that's going to be a lot of pressure on everybody to come up with something."

A missing piece of the cloistered last week of talks has been members up for reelection, particularly those in tough races, and their desire (and political need) to reach an outcome. That's not exclusive to Senate Republicans. It applies to House Democrats as well. If, and when, more of those members start making the case Cornyn made on Monday, the overall dynamics may start to shift.

The wild card

The focus, up to this point, has been entirely on the top four negotiators. That's about to shift.

McConnell, this afternoon, will lay out a Senate floor process that will include several votes on extending unemployment benefits and potentially other policy issues for the latter half of this week, likely starting Wednesday.

It's something the Kentucky Republican teed up last week as a backstop of sorts -- should no progress be made by the negotiators, he'd start a process moving on the floor. It's not a process that will lead to an outcome in and of itself, but it will be designed to force Democrats onto the record on specific policy issues and, perhaps, spark talks amongst members. It's a political exercise to a degree, but in the absence of any other major progress, also an effort to kick something, anything, into gear.

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Stimulus negotiations: 'Productive' meetings don't mean progress - CNN

OR Parent Making "Significant Progress" With Virtual Events – SGB Media

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Emerald Holding Inc., the parent of Outdoor Retailer, Surf Expo and other trade shows, saw second-quarter revenues collapse as it was forced to cancel 60 events and postpone 14 others due to COVID-19. But company officials said its making significant progress with an ongoing organizational restructure and its virtual events are seeing a strong response.

On a conference call with analysts, Brian Field, interim president and CEO, said the company hosted more than 140 webinars and built an internal library of over 300 podcasts. It also hosted a small number of virtual trade shows, with several more scheduled in the second half of the year.

These virtual shows have many of the same features found at our live events, including keynote speakers, awards and virtual booths, allowing our exhibitors to load their products and host virtual meetings with buyers, said Field. While the feedback weve received from our customers is enthusiastic, they also note that they do not replace the value found in face-to-face in traditional, in-person shows and theyre outspoken in their desire to return to live events once the medium is safe. That said, we believe that there is an emergent hybrid model, whereby virtual shows will complement live events over the year.

The virtual shows also arent as lucrative. Emerald projects a modest revenue opportunity in the $5 million to $10 million range at a strong contribution margin.

Said Field, In the near-term, the more important value of these events is our ability to engage with our exhibitors year-round, and to provide them commercial solutions, particularly in todays environment. These platforms also serve as meaningful new customer acquisition vehicles as well. Over this past quarter, our webinar and virtual event products have generated over 50,000 new customer prospects. Our team will continue to innovate in the digital space as well as explore new products and services, as we continue to expand the value that we provide to our customers.

Organizational Restructure Expected To Drive EfficienciesField also said the COVID-19 disruption is enabling Emerald to streamline and unify many processes across the organization. He said, When I first joined Emerald, a little over a year ago, it was clear to me that the companys challenges were largely the result of poor execution, a lack of accountability and a siloed organizational structure, all of which we have aggressively addressed. As we execute upon our strategic initiatives, we are trying to transform the company and how we operate, building the foundation for future growth and improved profitability.

For instance, marketing was previously handled individually at the brand level, and the company was unable to scale the benefits or best practices that exist across portfolios or leverage customer insights and data across shows and products. Brand marketing and marketing operations functions have been reorganized into central teams to deliver more marketing plans; use common processes, technology and data; and reduce marketing spend with 25 percent less staff.

Sales teams have also been repositioned around specific roles for lead development, account management and customer success. Said Field, This structure moves us away from generalist selling to a structure designed to improve sales velocity on the front end of the process, with greater up-selling, product utilization, deeper customer satisfaction, and higher retention on the back end with our customer success roles.

Emerald also announced the first phase of a unified technology initiative, called Smart Tech, which will be completed in August, with the goal of having customer data in one centralized hub. Field said this will provide a deep understanding of our customers interests and behaviors, what events they attend, what they do with those events, who they interact with, the content they read online, the webinars they view, among many other touchpoints.

In other areas, Emerald has reduced its cost structure by more than $15 million year-to-date with opportunities to reduce costs further. Field said this is helping Emerald to conserve capital over the near-term as a buffer against COVID-19 and is expected to improve its profitability over the long-term.

Emerald also raised $400 million through the issuance of convertible preferred stock, the final portion of which is scheduled to close later this month. Said Field, We believe this capital raise provides us with liquidity and flexibility to make the right decisions for the business during an uncertain time. While we remain confident that the exhibition industry will return to its former health and vitality over time, we simply do not know how long that will take. This equity raise provides the capital bridge to when the events industry returns to a more normal state.

In the second quarter, Emerald reported revenues of $7 million compared to revenues of $103.0 million for the second quarter of 2019. The decrease primarily reflected an $84.6 million reduction from the cancellation of 20 second quarter events due to COVID-19, most notably Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, HD Expo, RetailX and the Couture Collection Show, as well as an $8 million decline due to the postponement of eight second-quarter events to the second half.

Discontinued events representing $1.1 million of second-quarter 2019 revenues also impacted the second quarter 2020 results. The G3 Communications acquisition, which closed in Q419, contributed $1.6 million of revenue in the latest quarter. Organic revenues for the quarter declined 36.5 percent.

Net income came to $9.9 million compared to $11.4 million a year ago. The company recorded $48.2 million of Other Income during the quarter as a result of the confirmation of event cancellation insurance claims related to events canceled in the first half.

Adjusted EBITDA was $33.2 million, compared to $36.5 million, adjusted for show scheduling differences, including COVID-19 related postponements. The decrease was mainly due to the COVID-19 related cancellations offset by insurance claims.

Asked about the potential for Emerald to lose exhibitors or attendees should show cancellations extend into 2021, Field cited the virtual events as critical to retention, including as in-person events should return. Field suspects exhibitors or attendees will continue to have apprehensions about attending live events because of corporate travel restrictions or fears of flying or large gatherings.

Said Field, One of the things that weve done to help satisfy those customers, who perhaps want to, but are afraid, is to look at our virtual offerings as those companion elements to the show. So, now theyre not going to be as robust certainly, as a live event. Theyre not going to have a wide variety of discovery and that sort of serendipitous encountering of new colleagues and new products that they might see on a typical live event show floor. But theyll still have the ability to interact, browse new products online, schedule appointments, find some learning as well some of those key elements of a live show that isnt necessarily the full live show itself. So, of course, no one knows having never gone through this before, if theyre going to come back the third, fourth, fifth nth time, but this is certainly one of the pieces of the plan that we have in place to ensure that theres as much customer continuity as possible, while were going through this time.

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Coronavirus Risks Wiping Out Years of Public Health Progress in Americas-WHO Director – The New York Times

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SAO PAULO The new coronavirus is interrupting vaccination programs and frontline care for other diseases which risked wiping out years of health progress in the Americas, the World Health Organization's regional director said on Tuesday.

The official, Carissa Etienne, said at a weekly press briefing that the pandemic was reducing frontline care for chronic conditions such as diabetes and infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis.

"These services are severely disrupted or, worse yet, halted entirely," she said. "The Americas are at risk of losing years of health gains in a matter of months."

Supply of drugs is also a worsening problem, Etienne said. Eleven countries within the Americas have less than three months supply of antiretrovirals for HIV and others are running short of tuberculosis medication, she said.

Etienne urged governments to increase spending on health to at least 6% of gross domestic product (GDP), saying the current average of 3.7% was not enough.

"Countries must adapt and commit to simultaneously providing these essential primary care services while at the same time mitigating the effects of COVID-19," she said. "This is not an either or choice."

(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)

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Coronavirus Risks Wiping Out Years of Public Health Progress in Americas-WHO Director - The New York Times

Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation Receives $5 Million Charitable Gift to Accelerate Progress in World-Class Cardiovascular Prevention Research…

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MHIF Establishes the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health to drive its commitment to changing the trajectory of heart disease

MINNEAPOLIS Aug. 3, 2020 The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF), an internationally renowned cardiovascular research organization, announced today a $5 million charitable donation from the Stuart Nolan family to support cardiovascular disease prevention research and education that aims to change the trajectory of heart disease for future generations. In honor of the gift matching the largest donation ever made to the foundation MHIF is establishing the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health.

My personal connection to cardiovascular research started with the care and treatment I received more than 30 years ago at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, which continues to allow me to live a full life, said Stuart Nolan, a long-time supporter of MHIF. My children have reached the age at which I had my first heart attack, raising the importance of understanding genetic and other risk factors that affect their heart health and underscore the importance of this work to my family. I have great faith in Dr. Miedema and his team of dedicated MHIF researchers who have shown a sincere commitment to furthering research to define the prevention and management of cardiovascular risks that affect many families.

At a time when wellness and overall health is as important as ever, this gift will accelerate progress and innovation in research and education around how to prevent cardiovascular disease, which continues to be the number one cause of death for people around the world. This research will also address some of the challenges around health disparities by further defining and understanding risk factors, as well as identifying the best care pathways for addressing care in racial and ethnic minorities where heart disease outcomes are significantly worse than other populations.

Our commitment to impactful, cardiovascular disease prevention research isnt new, but this inspiring gift from the Nolan family will propel our efforts to change the paradigm from heart disease to optimal health, said Michael Miedema, MD, MPH, director of the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health at MHIF and director of cardiovascular prevention at the Minneapolis Heart Institute. The ultimate goals of cardiovascular prevention research are to identify the optimal methods to accurately assess cardiovascular risk, as well as determine the best interventions to stop the evolution to heart disease. The research is all about determining who to treat and how to treat them, which gives our patients the best chance to avoid the tragic heart attack or the unwanted bypass surgery.

Mr. Nolan formerly served as MHIFs chairman of the board and is the current chairman of Minneapolis-based StuartCo, a residential property management company that he founded in 1970. He has received recognition for his ongoing commitment to giving back to the community.

Dr. Miedemas leadership in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention includes serving on the executive review committee for the 2018 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Cholesterol Guidelines and serving as a member of the 2019 ACC/AHA Committee for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. He also serves as an associate editor for the prevention section of ACC.org.

Over its 38-year history, MHIF has led groundbreaking research and education across a wide spectrum of prevention-related topics, including coronary artery calcium testing, blood pressure, cholesterol and statin use, nutrition and lifestyle behaviors, risk factors and screening for specific populations, premature heart disease and genetic disorders. New cutting-edge research planned for the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health will focus on risk prediction and optimal prevention therapies, including:

We are grateful to the Nolan family for a gift that drives the MHIF vision of creating a world without heart and vascular disease, said Kristine Fortman, PhD, MHIF CEO. This significant gift will accelerate our impact in preventive cardiovascular research, including supporting the infrastructure for the research, staff and fellows to lead an accelerated pace of clinical studies.

The Nolan family is creating a legacy in partnership with a respected research team, whose passion for discovery will advance our mission of achieving long and healthy lives for all without the burden of cardiovascular disease, said Scott Sharkey, MD, president and chief medical officer at MHIF. At this moment in our history, an unprecedented pandemic has emphasized the importance of a healthy lifestyle; we are thankful to be able to drive this important research that will benefit our patients and their families now and for generations to come.

About Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation

The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF) strives to create a world without heart and vascular disease. To achieve this bold vision, it is dedicated to improving the cardiovascular health of individuals and communities through innovative research and education.

Scientific Innovation and Research MHIF is a recognized leader across all specialties of heart and vascular research. Each year, MHIF leads more than 200 research studies with more than 2,200 patients and publishes more than 200 articles to share learnings from research. MHIF research has improved the standard of care for patients around the world, including through the development of protocols like Level One, which continues to significantly improve outcomes and survival for heart attack patients.

Education and Outreach MHIF provides more than 10,000 hours of education each year putting its research into practice to improve outcomes among health care providers. This commitment extends to patients and caregivers through a number of community health and education events to raise awareness of heart care and research, engaging individuals in their own health.

The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundations work is funded by generous donors and sponsors and engages in cutting-edge research initiatives with its physician partners from the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and at 38 community sites across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. For more information, please visit mplsheart.org.

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AUDIO: KAPPA Ethanol Crop Progress Report For The Week Of August 3 – KTIC

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The first crop progress report of August shows a corn and soybean crop that is still strong and in one case improving. Row crops are also quickly entering important stages of production. Winter wheat harvest continues to lag in Northern states. While oat harvest is is almost to the halfway point. Pasture and range condition looks to be holding rather than the deteriorating, like it was just a few weeks ago. Finally moisture levels continue to increase in several Midwestern states.

Starting in the corn crop, first up is silking. Nationwide 92% of the crop has reached the silking stage. That is up 10% from a week ago and is 5% ahead of the five year average. States like Nebraska almost have the whole corp silking or silked at 94%. That is up 3% from the five year average. Kansas corn is keeping close pace with its 5 year average at 90% silking. Iowa corn is now rated 95% silked, up 3% from the 5 year average.

Corn entering the dough stage is moving right along, up 17% week to 39% across the country. That is 6% ahead of the 5 year average. Nebraska corn is now 43% in the dough stage, up 12% from the 5 year average. Iowa is just ahead of Nebraska at 44% in the dough stage. Kansas is ahead of both Iowa and Nebraska at 53% in the dough stage. That is 12% ahead of the Kansas 5 year average.

As for corn and soybean condition some may be surprised to not see a decrease for this week. Nationally the corn crop condition remained unchanged at 72% good to excellent. Iowa was again one of the few major corn producing states to see a decline of 4% to 73% good to excellent. Nebraska corn improved another 2% to 77% good to excellent. Kansas corn improved 1% to 61% good to excellent. After an 11% increase last week Illinois corn slowed down and only improved 2% this week to 74% good to excellent.

Now for soybeans we start with soybeans that are blooming and that would be about 85% of the national soybean crop. That is just ahead of the 5 year average of 82%. Nebraska has 95% of its soybeans blooming. That is up 8% from the 5 year average. Kansas soybeans are now 79% in the bloom stage. That is up 9% from the five year average. Iowa soybeans have the end in sight for blooming now 91% complete. That is up 5% from the Iowa 5 year average.

Just like corn in the dough stage soybeans setting pods really increased week to week. Nationwide 59% of the soybean crop has put on pods. In Iowa 70% of the soybeans have put on pods. That is up 13% from the 5 year average. Nebraska has 64% of the soybean crop putting on pods. Kansas has 55% of its soybean crop putting on pods. That is a full 20% ahead of the 5 year average.

Breaking away from corn this week is the soybean condition rating. Which nationwide improved 1% to 73% good to excellent. Illinois remained unchanged week to week at 76% good to excellent. Kansas improved 1% to 68% good to excellent. Iowa and Nebraska both declined in soybean condition ratings. Nebraska soybeans dropped 1% to 79% good to excellent. Iowa soybeans dropped 3% to 73% good to excellent.

Oat harvest is about to cross the halfway mark at 49% complete. That is 6% higher than the 5 year average for oat harvest. Nebraska farmers have harvested 92% of the oat crop. Well ahead of the 5 year average of 81%. Iowa has harvested 85% of their oat crop. Similar to Nebraska Iowa has left its 5 year average for oat harvest behind at 74%.

Like soybeans nationally the oat crop improved 1% to 62% good to excellent. Iowa oats are rated 73% good to excellent. Nebraska oats are rated 61% good to excellent.

The sorghum crop is quickly coming along and looking fairly decent. Nationally the sorghum crop is rated 55% good to excellent. That is a 2% increase week to week. Nebraska soybeans top the nations crop condition rating at 64% good to excellent.

Winter wheat harvest is now over the three quarter mark, but slowing down. According to NASS 85% of winter wheat harvest is complete. That trails the 5 year average by 3%. Nebraska is soon to join the likes of Texas and Kansas at 96% complete. Northern states like Montana continue to slow the overall progress of wheat harvest with only 20% of the corp harvested. That compares to the 5 year average of 52% harvested. Washington is also well off pace at 33% harvested, compared to 48% on the 5 year average.

Pasture and range conditions were mixed this week as compared to last weeks gain. Nebraska pasture declined 1% to 59% good to excellent. Kansas pasture and range improved 1% to 53% good to excellent.

Soil moisture though continues to increase across much of the Midwest with recent rains. Nebraska topsoil moisture improved 4% to 63% adequate to surplus. Kansas topsoil moisture improved 11% to 81% adequate to surplus. Nebraska subsoil improved 2% to 64% adequate to surplus. Kansas subsoil improved 8% to 77% adequate to surplus.

You can see all of the NASS crop condition numbers here: https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/8336h188j/70795w747/6t054476d/prog3220.pdf

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AUDIO: KAPPA Ethanol Crop Progress Report For The Week Of August 3 - KTIC